Apple Reportedly Allowing Some Employees to Work On Projects Outside of Regular Responsibilities

Apple is now reportedly allowing a select group of their employees to spend up to two weeks working on jobs of their choosing. This initiative seems to be similar to Google’s policy of allowing their employees to spend 20% of their time working on other projects outside of their normal responsibilities. Some of these extracurricular activities at Google have since made their way to market as actual products.

The piece from The Wall Street Journal outlines how the corporate culture at Apple is changing under CEO Tim Cook. Specifically, it seems that Cook is more accepting of employees taking sabbaticals, more public praising of employees, and Apple is giving counteroffers to employees who are considering leaving to take positions at other companies.

It seems that Cook is trying to foster creativity and new initiatives in his own way. A lot of things have changed under cook. There has been an executive shakeup, change in corporate charity policy, and a more employee-friendly culture policies since he took over in August of 2011. I think we will see more changes, many of them for the better, under Cook’s leadership.